“It was 9.45am on a Saturday back in October 2021, I’d just joined about 2,000 other participants in a virtual hackathon organised by DBS.

Only, we weren’t developing a solution to win a grand cash prize. We were all competing for 100+ tech roles that DBS was hiring for.

A welcome speech, pleasantries and introductions later, I found myself in a breakout room with six people - (who were to be my teammates), a host, and a technical assessor that would monitor how we worked as a team and the quality of our work.

The task - to code and develop a user interface to categorise customers’ debit and credit card spend in a dashboard that would give useful insights.

Unlike other participants who had many years of experience as a developer - one of my teammates even had seven years under his belt - I was an aerospace engineer hoping to make the pivot to a tech role.

My journey to this point started when I first attended part-time data science courses and coding bootcamps during the pandemic to break the monotony of days spent at home - and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of digitalisation.

I found myself wishing I could apply those concepts to my job as an engineer. As I monitored machinery that built parts of powerful aircraft engines in a massive warehouse the size of two football fields, I saw opportunities to streamline processes.

This hack-to-hire would be a true test of my newly learnt skills and concepts. Within our small team, I assumed the role of a scrum master and began delegating tasks based on the strengths of each team member. I also made sure to keep our assessor constantly updated on the team’s progress.

As the day quickly turned into night, we presented our projects to managers and senior tech leads. We weren’t able to build a complete working model in that short timeframe, so I could only hope that our framework and logic were sound enough.

I thanked my team, logged off, and finally took a breather, exhausted from the day’s events. Just two hours later, my phone lit up with an invitation to a job interview.

Today, six months later, I’m a full-time developer in the DBS customer analytics team working on implementation across the region. Here, we optimise real-time data to create personalised and intuitive experiences for our customers, and bolster their protection against fraud or scams.

Throughout my journey as a developer, I’ve felt truly supported by the team - from the comprehensive treasure trove of e-learning materials, to the on-the-job support from my very patient teammates.

Trying to break into the tech industry without years of experience had been extremely trying - I couldn’t even get interviews with many companies.

The hackathon was definitely one of the most stressful days of my life, but I’m really grateful that it gave me an opportunity to showcase everything I learnt in my online courses, and that the assessor, and DBS, took a chance on me.”

- Julian Chang, Customer Analytics, DBS Technology & Operations

"I was 13 years into my career as a video editor at Disney when I found out I was accepted into a mid-career trainee developer programme attached to DBS.

Naturally, my family was quite apprehensive. It was the end of 2020, we were in the middle of the pandemic, I was deep in my comfort zone (could probably work with my eyes closed), working cross-regionally, training new hires, and even handling blockbuster releases of Disney/Marvel films!

But I knew I would definitely regret it if I didn’t give this a try so I took the plunge and quit my job.

It may seem like a random spur-of-the-moment decision, but I had been juggling work and coding on the side for over a year now.

How I got into coding, however, was a chance encounter. A few years back, I watched a documentary on Masako Wakamiya. At age 81, she learnt to code and began creating fun games for the elderly.

I’d always seen coding as a cool skill to pick up, but thought it was only something younger fresh graduates did. Masako Wakamiya inspired me. If she could pick it up at 81, surely I could too.

I started by building simple websites and solving algorithm puzzles found on YouTube, and got such a dopamine kick every time I successfully sorted virtual fruits by alphabetical order, or by their size. As I moved on to more complex code, I realised I was hooked.

To give some context, I’ve always loved solving puzzles. At Disney, I was part of an unofficial lunch-time board game club. We’d speed-eat for 15 minutes and spend the rest of the hour immersed in games like Catan or my personal favourite, Ticket to Ride (getting the longest train was the dream!).

Eventually I enrolled in a part-time bootcamp. For nine months, I’d work full time at Disney, and spend my evenings and nights coding. I had no social life during that time (thankfully, I didn’t lose any friends) but I felt so alive, and full of purpose.

Today, several years after I started coding virtual fruits, I’m now building and maintaining features of the DBS NavPlanner full-time. Every day is different, and feels like a new challenge.

Before I joined DBS, I only thought of a bank as a place to store my money. Having been here for over a year, I see the scale of work that goes into making sure customers have a seamless, smooth banking experience - business teams, security teams, developers, mobile testers, I could go on and on.

For anyone considering a mid-career switch, ask yourself this: “would you regret it if you didn’t try?”

— Linda Lee, DBS Technology & Operations